Behind Bars
by New Neon
Summary: part of one of my 1000 words or less challenge because the things I write are too long.    Prison AU! Zoro and Sanji are cell-mates who can't stand each other but decide to watch each other's back  sorta, i did my best


The cell door clanged behind him loudly as he was locked up for the first time. He saw a flash of green on the pillow of the bottom bunk as the guy there looked up at him disinterestedly.

"Top bunk's yours, keep your hands off me and my stuff and we'll be fine." He drawled in a bored voice and then went back to lazing on his bed.

Over the next few weeks Sanji had expected to tentatively bond with his new cellmate, instead the man just irritated him more and more. When Sanji wanted to talk he was too quiet and when Sanji wanted some peace suddenly the guy was full of inane insults. His hair was stupidly green, although the dye was growing out to reveal black hair underneath and his stupid face was always either scowling or bored. Everything he did got on Sanji's nerves, the guy spent hours doing pushups and exercises in their cell thoroughly stinking the place up.

Going to prison Sanji could live with, he'd known full well that he might get caught when he did what he did and he'd accepted that. Spending all that time in a prison cell with Zoro of all people was more than he'd bargained for.

He'd made a few friends during his time inside, most closely a guy called Usopp who was in jail for perjury. Basically he'd lied to the cops and the judge so much that they'd banged him up to teach him a lesson. He was in line with Usopp for another particularly awful meal when he realised that they'd stepped in line behind Zoro. He and the moss-head grunted at each other in greeting before going back to ignoring one another.

Sanji's pretty sure that he could have stayed neutral with Zoro if it hadn't been for what he saw in line that day. There were a row of inmates dishing up the "food" to their fellow inmates. The one who'd slapped a poor excuse for lasagne on Zoro's plate glared at Zoro and declared that he didn't like the man's face. Now, Sanji could agree with the man on that, Zoro's scowl wasn't a pleasant sight to see, in fact Sanji himself had many a time contemplated rearranging Zoro's face to help this fact.

However what he couldn't handle was the fact that this inmate grinned nastily and spat on Zoro's food. A big nasty greasy looking gob of spit too. Zoro was probably about to do something, and really he needn't have interfered but Sanji couldn't help himself. One moment he'd been standing there bored holding his tray and the next thing he knew he'd leapt the plexiglass fronted counter and was smashing his empty tray into the face of the spitting man.

It took the stunned guards a good minute to react, get to him and pull him off the bastard. He'd got two days in solitary for that stunt. Zeff always had said that he had poor impulse control.

"You know I could have handled that myself." Zoro said to him the moment he was released back into his cell with the other man.

"You know that I don't care." He retorted already feeling irritated at the moss-head.

"People are going to think we're friends now or something. And they're going to see you as a threat now, or someone to take down. You should have kept your head down." Zoro adds with a scowl.

"You're fucking welcome, asshole." He snapped irritably. Zoro blinked at Sanji in surprise and seemed to consider this for a moment before his face softened suddenly, his cheeks pinking with embarrassment.

"Oh. Uh, thank you. For… having my back, or… whatever." The other man mumbled, and scratched the back of his head.

Admitting, even to himself, that Zoro had been right was almost as painful as the punches being delivered to his gut. Three guys had ambushed him on his way to the exercise yard, one grabbed his legs and the other snagged his arms whilst the third guy concentrated on beating the shit out of him. He'd been wondering how long this was going to go on before they got bored when the voice cut through his brain.

"Okay guys, that's enough. Whatever he did I'm sure he's not gonna do it again." Zoro's deep drawl announced. Despite this the assholes told Zoro to kindly fuck off.

"Look, I've gotta share a cell with this guy and I don't wanna be kept awake hearing him whine about how much everything hurts. So just, cut it okay?" the marimo says in a voice that Sanji had learnt to read as casual sounding but threatening underneath.

The guy who was punching Zoro made a swing for Zoro who, for a big guy, was surprisingly quick in ducking it and efficiently punching the guy back in the solar plexus and dropping him immediately. A flash of tanned skin flew by Sanji's face and with a crack broke the face of the guy holding Sanji's arms. Zoro caught him by the arm before he hit the floor and levelled a threatening look at the guy who held Sanji's feet. The third moron caught on quick and scarpered leaving the two of them more or less alone.

"You're not dead, that's good." Zoro said in a slightly pleased tone when Sanji got back from the infirmary two days later.

Sanji scowled and walked over to Zoro's bunk. He ducked quickly with a wince at his broken ribs and pressed a kiss to Zoro's mouth.

Zoro's face was a perfect picture of shock when he pulled back.

"You don't owe me you know." Zoro said warily.

"As if I'd be that grateful, asshole." Sanji groused and kissed Zoro again. That time Zoro relaxed into it and kissed him back. A sudden catcall from across the prison made Sanji jerk back and Zoro startle.

"You're gonna get us both killed you know. Idiot." Zoro smiled at him fondly.


End file.
